Drones are helping police, but not everyone is happy

Master Sgt. Adam Ringle, head of the Forensic Services Unit, demonstrates the use of the quadcopter now being used by the Wilmington Police Department to take aerial photos and video of crime scenes.
SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL

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Twenty pieces of construction equipment stolen from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were recovered on two Cecil County, Maryland, properties earlier this month, thanks to the use of drones by law enforcement.(Photo: ESTEBAN PARRA/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo

One person has been arrested and more arrests are expected, according to the department.

More and more police departments are using drones as an investigative means to an end.

The Somerset County, New Jersey, Sheriff's Office became the first law enforcement agency in the country to receive new drone technology for search-and-rescue missions. That drone is part of a partnership with Project Lifesaver International, a group with 1,600 partners that trains law enforcement to locate missing people .

But there are concerns about the type of surveillance the drones carry out.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in January said it would be deploying drones to help at disaster response scenes, hostage rescue situations and in cases of barricaded and armed suspects. Sheriff Jim McDonnell said the department would not use drones "for random surveillance missions or missions that would violate the privacy rights of the public."

"The coalition's rejection of the deployment of drones by LASD arises from deep concerns and history of violence, brutality, disregard for privacy rights, and several other factors," said Hamid Khan, campaign coordinator with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.

Some of the coalition's objections include that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is one of the most militarized police departments and drones could further it becoming an occupying institution that operates as a counter-insurgency force.

Wilmington police Master Sgt. Adam B. Ringle said using drones helps officers with real-time intelligence with what's happening on the ground, which officers working a special event or in a tactical situation would not be able to instantly see.

"A lot of things happen that are not visible when you can only see 10 or 15 people," Ringle said. "It's the same purpose that a police helicopter would be used, but it's much less of a cost."

Ringle said people get concerned when they hear that police will be using drones; it happened when Wilmington first announced it would deploy them, but he said using them properly diminishes those worries.

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Master Sgt. Adam Ringle, head of the Forensic Services Unit, demonstrates the use of the quadcopter now being used by the Wilmington Police Department to take aerial photos and video of crime scenes.(Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

"It's not really an issue unless the drone operator flies it low in somebody's yard, like a paparazzi type of thing," he said. "And you're not going to find any law enforcement agency behaving that way."

In the construction equipment case, the Cecil County Sheriff's Office was contacted March 9 by New Jersey State Police about an ongoing investigation into multiple pieces of stolen heavy duty construction equipment, including a bulldozer, excavators and a backhoe. The New Jersey investigation pointed to an Elkton, Maryland, man.

The sheriff's office also received a tip that the same man was responsible for several pieces of stolen property in other states. The sheriff's office then contacted Pennsylvania and Delaware state police and officers with the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife Natural Resources — all of whom were investigating recent equipment thefts from their jurisdictions.

It was then decided to use the office's new drone. Operated by Sheriff Adams, the drone was flown over a property in the 2000 block of Barksdale Road near Elkton, where several large pieces of construction equipment were seen near a large structure, sheriff's officials said.

After the aerial surveillance, Adams said investigators obtained search warrants at the Barksdale Road property and the suspect’s residence in Elkton.

At the Barksdale Road property, Adams said 17 pieces of construction equipment were seized. The investigation led to another property on Telegraph Road near Elkton, where two additional pieces of construction equipment were found and seized, police said. At the suspect's residence, investigators located multiple items including keys to the stolen equipment, according to police.

Sgt. Richard Bratz, a spokesman with Delaware State Police, said six items — two trailers, an excavator, backhoe, bulldozer and skid steer — that were reported stolen from Delaware were recovered. The items were stolen from storage units and construction sites, he said. Some of the thefts go back to October.

"We're in the process now of returning all of the stolen equipment to the rightful owners," Bratz said.